**Kakao and OpenAI Announce Partnership: Jung Se-jin Calls It a Bridge to Popularize AI Services in Korea**
Kakao’s CEO, Jung Se-jin, and OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, attended a press conference on February 4 at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul, where they announced their collaboration. During the event, Sam Altman highlighted the potential contributions of Korean companies to OpenAI’s AI infrastructure project, “Stargate.”
At the joint press conference, Kakao and OpenAI outlined their strategic partnership, which includes integrating OpenAI technologies into Kakao’s services and developing products together. Jung Se-jin emphasized that the core of their partnership is to focus on “hyper-personalized AI” and involves not only financial investment but also the exchange of personnel and ideas.
During the conversation, Sam Altman expressed admiration for Korea’s AI adoption rate and its potential as a powerful AI adopter due to its advanced energy and semiconductor industries. He shared his excitement about partnering with Kakao and anticipated significant achievements in Korea.
Altman also discussed OpenAI’s vision for agent AI, like their recent “Deep Research,” which autonomously handles tasks and performs in-depth analysis, surpassing mere conversational abilities of tools like ChatGPT. This can lead to completing tasks in minutes that could take days otherwise.
In response to inquiries about their collaboration, Jung Se-jin mentioned that they are exploring various ideas, particularly in areas aligning with consumer demand in Kakao’s services like KakaoTalk and KakaoMap. There is a mutual exchange of ideas, leveraging OpenAI’s extensive experience with AGI interactions and Kakao’s deep understanding of its users.
Regarding the establishment of an OpenAI Korean branch, Sam Altman said it’s challenging to disclose a specific timeline but expressed enthusiasm about the Korean market’s potential. Jung Se-jin noted that the investment scale and partnership dimensions are expanding rapidly, starting from utilizing OpenAI’s models to co-developing products and utilizing agent AI.
Both leaders agreed on the importance of ensuring AI safety, with efforts such as maintaining checklists for testing AI safety during development. They discussed the integration of safety considerations from the outset, especially when creating AI agents capable of controlling computers.
Although they didn’t disclose plans for participating in Korea’s national AI data center project, they acknowledged the importance of model and infrastructure development for the country’s AI industry. They also hinted at the potential contributions Korean companies could make to the Stargate ecosystem, despite not sharing specific details at the conference.